Former deb Cornelia Read knows all about old-school WASP culture at first-hand – and her debut novel A FIELD OF DARKNESS, which was nominated for a raft of awards, proves this!RTE: Describe yourself in a sentence?

Read: Today it would be On The Road To Elath, by the Oranim Zabar Israeli Troupe (1958). I used to listen to it all the time as a kid, and miss owning the LP desperately. The lead vocals are done by a woman named Guela Gill, who has the most wonderfully raspy voice – sort of Lotte-Lenya-meets-Astrud-Gilberto, only better.

RTE: What did you want to be when you were growing up?

Read: Batman and/or Lawrence of Arabia.

RTE: Who's your oldest friend?

Read: Lorilot Clark, aptly known as Tiger. She’s 87.

RTE: If I ruled the world...

Read: Satire would count as gym credit.

RTE: Which book do you wish you'd written?

Read: The Outsiders, by SE Hinton.

RTE: What makes you angry?

Read: Politics and cruelty. Especially when they’re simultaneous.

RTE: Name your five dream dinner party guests.

Read: Winston Churchill, Dorothy Parker, Tallulah Bankhead, HL Mencken, and Hunter S Thompson. Not that they’d necessarily enjoy each other’s company. May have to seat them in separate rooms and table-hop.

Read: A most-likely typical combination of blistering arrogance and abject self-loathing, mixed with my adoration of books and the play of language.

RTE: Where would you most like to live?

Read: Someplace you can get decent Szechuan food delivered, with maid service. If that could be on an island off the coast of Thailand and I got to bring all my favorite people to live there too, so much the better.

RTE: Sum up your latest book in no more than 12 words.

Read: Madeline and these way-cool insane kids kick major pompous New Age butt. (Apologies for the hyphen).